Netanyahu says Israel will end Gaza ceasefire if hostages not returned on Saturday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages by noon on Saturday a fragile ceasefire in Gaza would end and the Israeli army would resume its offensive in the Palestinian enclave until the militant group is defeated.

"In light of Hamas' announcement of its decision to violate the agreement and not release our hostages, last night I ordered the IDF to gather forces inside and around the Gaza Strip," Netanyahu said, speaking after a meeting of his security cabinet.

"This operation is being carried out at this time. It will be completed in the very near future," he said in a statement.

Hamas has begun releasing some hostages gradually under the first phase of a ceasefire reached last month, but said on Monday it would not free any more until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the terms with several deadly shootings as well as hold-ups of some aid deliveries in Gaza.

U.S. President Donald Trump, a close ally of Israel, said in response that Hamas should release all the hostages held by the militant group by midday on Saturday or he would propose cancelling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which took effect on January 19.

"If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon - the ceasefire will end and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated," Netanyahu said.

It was not immediately clear if Netanyahu meant Hamas should release all hostages that are held in Gaza or just those that had been expected to be released on Saturday under the ceasefire.

His office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking comment on the prime minister's remarks.

A Hamas official said on Tuesday that Israeli hostages could be brought home only if the ceasefire was respected, dismissing the "language of threats" after Trump said he would "let hell break out" if they were not freed.

"Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the (Israeli) prisoners. The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters," senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Israel denies holding back aid supplies and says it has fired on people who disregard warnings not to approach Israeli troop positions.

So far, 16 of the 33 hostages to be freed in the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire deal have come home, as well as five Thai hostages who were returned in an unscheduled release.

In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of prisoners and detainees, including prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks and Palestinians detained during the war and held without charge.

A group representing families of hostages urged Netanyahu to stick to the ceasefire agreement.

"We must not go backwards. We cannot allow the hostages to waste away in captivity," the hostages forum said in a statement.

There are 76 hostages still in Gaza, more than 35 of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli media.

TRUMP'S PLAN FOR GAZA

Gaza, one of the world's most densely populated areas, has been devastated by Israel's military offensive. The enclave is short of food, water and shelter, and in need of billions in foreign aid.

More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, the Gaza health ministry says, and nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million population internally displaced by the conflict.

Some 1,200 people were killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities and about 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages, Israeli tallies show.

Trump has enraged Palestinians and Arab leaders and upended decades of U.S. policy that endorsed a possible two-state solution in the region by trying to impose his vision of Gaza.

He has said the United States should take over Gaza and move out its more than 2 million Palestinian residents so that the enclave can be turned into the "Riviera of the Middle East".

The forcible displacement of a population under military occupation is a war crime banned by the 1949 Geneva conventions.

Trump restated the idea that the U.S. should take over Gaza and permanently resettle its residents, as he met Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday amid widespread opposition to his plan among Washington's Arab allies, including Jordan.

Netanyahu, who was speaking after a meeting of his security cabinet, said the group "welcomed the president's revolutionary vision for the future of Gaza".

The security cabinet is a select group of ministers that includes defence, national security and foreign affairs.

Palestinians fear a repeat of what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation. Israel denies they were forced out.

For Jordan, Trump's talk of resettlement comes dangerously close to its nightmare of a mass expulsion of Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank, echoing a vision of Jordan as an alternative Palestinian home that has long been propagated by ultra-nationalist Israelis.

Amman's concern is amplified by a surge in violence on its border with the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Palestinian hopes of statehood are being eroded by expanding Jewish settlement.

Gazans interviewed by Reuters criticised Trump for saying he would be prepared for "hell" to break out if all the Israeli hostages were not released by noon on Saturday.

"Hell worse than what we have already? Hell worse than killing? The destruction, all the practices and human crimes that have occurred in the Gaza Strip have not happened anywhere else in the world," said Jomaa Abu Kosh, a Palestinian from Rafah in southern Gaza, standing beside demolished homes.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on X on Tuesday that a resumption of armed conflict should be avoided at all costs because that would lead to "immense tragedy".